Kindle Unlimited Price Hike

[ownedbycats]

The authors are going to be compensated more, right?

Right?

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by issybird

I wasn't knocking the quality -- well, ok, I was -- but there's nothing wrong with that. As you note, it can work. I did two complimentary KU memberships because there are a lot of self-pubbed books (and not a lot of trad-pubbed) in a genre I like. The reality was that my reading satisfaction overall went down significantly, even though I DNFed the worst of them. Just the same, I was glad to have read the books; still, my gut reaction is that $144/year is a lot of money for not-very-good books even in quantity. Your point, however, about making use of Alexa to read KU books is excellent and could tip the balance.

I've read a few auto-biographies from KU also, like the one by Ernest Borgnine. Terrible writing, but I hear his voice when reading it and it's interesting.

My husband is retiring in July, and he plans on doing more reading as well, so he may be able to make use of KU too.

I don't use Alexa, it's a setting in Accessibility on iPhone for Spoken Content. Some of the voices are very easy to listen to and the punctuation is followed fairly well. I use Siri Voice #4 mostly. There is weirdness at times, I can always glance at the screen if it really confuses me.

I don't think we have an Alexa hooked up since our move. There might be one in the basement, but we aren't down there too much yet. I have a couple of the small puck shaped ones we got for free, they are still in a drawer.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

I don't use Alexa, it's a setting in Accessibility on iPhone for Spoken Content. Some of the voices are very easy to listen to and the punctuation is followed fairly well. I use Siri Voice #4 mostly. There is weirdness at times, I can always glance at the screen if it really confuses me.

Thanks; you've given me something to experiment with. I knew there was an option for having Android read texts and assumed also for iOS, but Alexa was good enough -- so much better than earlier text-to-speech and it was easy. Ask her to do it and boom! she was reading anything in my Kindle library. (Well, most of the time. Sometimes I think she willfully misunderstands.) But now that you've pointed the way, I'll see what Siri can do. And stream it through Alexa!

[tomsem]

The email I received about this is inaccurate. It says it's going to renew on May 11, 2023, but my current (24 month) renewal does not expire until 17 Apr 2024.

In the past I have taken advantage of KU deals that happen around Prime Day, Black Friday etc. to extend my subscription, hopefully an opportunity to do that will appear before I get bumped up to $11.99. I don't think I've paid anything close to even $9.99/mo.

I do use it a lot, often just for short term rentals where I just read a few chapters about something and not entire books.

It's especially good for public domain 'classics' ("Amazon Classics"): formatting is consistent and they all include audiobook companion. There are several hundred of these. Otherwise you have to find something among dozens of editions of, say, Crime & Punishment of dubious quality.

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by tomsem

The email I received about this is inaccurate. It says it's going to renew on May 11, 2023, but my current (24 month) renewal does not expire until 17 Apr 2024.

The email to me said this:

"The new price will apply to you after June 18, 2023, on the date of your next monthly renewal."

I'd think your email would say something similar reflecting your renewal term.

[tubemonkey]

Kobo Plus

Another option is Kobo's answer to Kindle Unlimited - Kobo Plus. While not as many books (1.3M+ vs 4M+), it is cheaper at $7.99/mo for eBooks only or $7.99/mo for audiobooks only (100K+) or $9.99/mo for both. You can try any of the three services free for 30 days.

[mt.msla]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Those who want to continue using Kindle Unlimited may be interested in giving themselves a gift subscription to KU. That provides a significant saving with the drawback of having to pre-pay.

The best deal is 24 months for $172.66 which works out to $7.19 per month.

Oh man I wish I'd seen this before yesterday...

Oh well.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

The email to me said this:

"The new price will apply to you after June 18, 2023, on the date of your next monthly renewal."

I'd think your email would say something similar reflecting your renewal term.

Mine was tied to annual renewal date IIRC. And it was the wrong renewal date.

If nothing better comes along, I should be able to sign up for another 2 year stint before it tries to nudge me to monthly.

[Barbara1955]

Does anyone know when Prime Day 2023 is? or did I already miss it

[ownedbycats]

TechRadar predicts mid-July.

[Barbara1955]

Thanks! I am hoping for an Unlimited Deal & an Audible Deal

[Barbara1955]

It is the 11th - 12th of JULY!!!

[BionicGecko]

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

It is the 11th - 12th of JULY!!!

I saw that Prime Day will indeed be on those dates, but did you see a confirmation of a deal on Kindle Unlimited or Audible on these dates? IIRC there was no rebate on either of those during the last Prime Day (at least in the UK).

[Barbara1955]

I can get unlimited for free for 3 months IF I buy a kindle. I wont do that. Audible Free for 30 days ugh these deals are year round!!

O I purchased a new Fire Got Nothing but the bill for it! So no deals with Fires, ugh

[fjdk]

you got me curious, and you're right the fire's don't seem to give the KU offer anymore :-( Then I wandered over to the KU page and it looks like it's got an offer for free three months followed by $12/month after...so maybe the deal is live now?